Compensation for verbal assault

A council kitchen assistant who was eventually forced to leave her job following a violent incident has been awarded £40,000 compensation by her former employer. She was employed as a kitchen assistant at a centre which caters for adults with learning difficulties. She was verbally assaulted, including threats to kill her, by a man who suffered from Fragile X Syndrome and had physically and verbally assaulted staff and other users of the centre on several previous occasions. She argued that the council had failed to properly assess the risk to her and colleagues and failed to adopt procedures to deal with it, such as one to one supervision. She was eventually medically retired on the grounds of ill health.